Thank you, The Almanac, for covering this committee recruitment process.

Below is a link to an interesting report sponsored by a grant from the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. Definitely worth a read, especially for those wondering, "Why does Menlo Park need to transition from At Large to By District elections?"

Web Link

Inspired by the report? Volunteer to serve on the Advisory Districting Committee and help set up the districts to be used in the November 2018 election. Deadline to apply is today (Monday, January 8th at 5pm). Application packet here: Web Link

Thank-you The Almanac,
This is a significant step forward for residents of Menlo Park and the City Council. Good governance comes from community engagement.

We just got great news from the Interim City Clerk, Clay Curtain. As of the 5pm deadline, there were between 25 and 30 solid applications submitted for the Advisory Districting Committee (it will ultimately have 9 members). Thank you to everyone who applied, considered applying and who forwarded information to your networks! It is wonderful to know that we live in a city that cares about real democracy! Thank you, also, to our hard-working City Staff for its recruiting efforts - an amazing achievement given the holiday season!

Next steps to form the Districting Committee:
- 3 names out of fully-vetted applicants will be randomly drawn on Tuesday, January 16th at the City Council meeting. Should be exciting!
- Those first 3 members will select the remaining 6 within a few days.
- And off they'll go!

All meetings will be open to the public, so please stay engaged in the process. It will be especially important to pay attention towards the end of the process to ensure that the adoption of the maps is done without any possible political bias. Stay tuned!

What else can you do?

Maps! It's not too late to draw and submit your own version of a district map. The Committee will be using many tools to assist them in creating the district boundaries. One of these is the resident-submitted maps. Let your voice be heard by doing so: Web Link